3 Bad Facts About Salt Water Pools

Have salt water pool for 5 years, had 0 issues. Very happy with it. Once in a year when I open pool for a season - I just bring water sample to my pool store, they test water, give me all chemicals I need to add once - and that's it. No other maintenance for a year, no problems.

I had a saltwater pool at our house in Georgia for almost 20 years. Performed all testing and maintenance myself and never had any of the issues mentioned here, and with proper maintenance the converter plates do not present a drawback. I solar heated the pool using solar panels with a water to water heat exchanger system and even when idled in summer months had little scaling issues and no unexpected negative problems. So my guess is if you have issues it's maintenance related or a poorly designed system. I will be duplicating my old Georgia system in my upcoming Florida build.

I have an above ground pool, now in its third season, for which I use a salt water system. I use about 3kg of pool salt per cubic meter of water and my convertor releases chlorine gas, (generated from the salt, sodium chloride) into the water which kills off the algae and bacteria. As long as the pH is set and kept at around 7 (by using pH-minus), and the pool is kept (almost) free of leaves and other debris, the salt water system works very well. I use filter balls in my filter which I exchange for clean ones usually once per season, and I have crystal clear water in my pool. I remove fine debris from the bottom of the pool by using the Pool Blaster Max.

Ive been servicing 40 to 60 pools weekly for almost 10 years. Salt water pools are the easiest and cheapest to maintain. The ph going up depends on the type of plaster mainly. Pools with vynil liner actually stay in perfect range when you convert them to salt. Only about 3 months a year i have to adjust the ph weekly...

we have been installing and servicing salt water systems for over 12 years and once pH is kept under control and water properly balanced we havent had any issues. You can use acid injection system to keep pH in check or what we have been doing is to lower the Total Alkalinity down to around 70ppm which prevents the pH from bouncing up. Of course all other levels effect the Calcite Saturation Index (CSI) so they need to be adjusted. We have maintained pools here in the Bahamas where we go once every 3 months to balance and check systems and the pools are kept in perfect balance. Cells cleaned every 3 months so this works. We have had pools stay in balance up to 6 months without service but we dont recommend that long. ideally pH should be kept between 7.4 and 7.6 on a weekly basis.

I can only speak to my own experience but Ive had a salt water pool for 3 years and have had no issues with scaling (vinyl liner inground). My pH is stable around 7.6. My approach though is that I vastly oversized my SWG, so I run it at 20% of output capacity for 8 hours overnight, essentially just over 1.5hrs in a generation state to keep around 3 to 4 ppm. All other levels of pool are balanced per recommended by troublefreepool forum. You should have clarified this information based on type of pool, as a concrete pool or fiberglass pool will have different characteristics than a vinyl pool.

I had a saltwater pool (and about to build another with a salt cell), the first pool I had was pretty easy to take care of maintain and the water was much softer and didn't smell like high chlorine and didn't make my skin itch.

I’m getting my 3 year old a kiddie pool I want to put salt water in it instead of chlorine because it seems less maintenance. Idk how much to use or if there is any other steps besides throwing some salt in there..

any way to pervent rust using saltwater on intex pools i has a best way coleman n it rusted out i was told add a zinc annode to keep it from rusting is this ok or what will pervent it from eating it up

All I care about is, easier to keep clear or not? Could care less about PH. Clear or not? Am I adding 2 gallons of chlorine per week or not? Algaecide, and all the other GD chemicals? Just looking for a easier clear pool system.

Good info Steve. Thank you. Aside from the heater is scale a big deal? Are there types of water heaters that aren't affected by scaling?

I've had a salt system for about a year and my PH has never tested above 7.4.

Is it also apply to Seawater Aquaculture pond ?

What about the water temperature and the chlorine generator? Does the water actually have to be over 70 fatenhight?

I’ve owned a salt water pool for 18 years at the same home, never had a issue with high PH probably cause the rain balancing it out or the proper Maintanence, also cleaning the system is normal maintenance, so this video is screwy in a way, to funny how people make claims.

So no heater no worries? We just acid clean the Chorine generator a little more often?? And for PH dont we just add acid a bit more often? Thank you

I’m getting chlorine or salt flakes in the pool regularly. The pools older but I replaced the salt cell this year. I use acid probably every other month to bring the ph down. I’m running the salt cell at 60% and maintain chlorine levels as long as water temperatures don’t exceed 90. Im also on well water which is extremely hard.

Many years ago Australia was the only place in the world that sol salt water chlorinators! The ONLY reason was the chemical companies in the US bought up the US patent and would NOT allow it to be sold! Salt water pools are a thousand times easier on the pocketbook and maintenance! I have had one for about 25 years now and maybe spend $150 a year on stabilizer and salt! No other issues at all! Chlorine is expensive and very difficult to maintain comp0ared to salt! Our community pool switched to salt and have saved about $15000 a year on chorine and mtse!

Hi Steve. What is your opinion using borates. I'm a bit concerned sinces it's been banned by W.H.O because of it toxicity.

Is there a way to reduce TDS? What is a “normal range” of TDS? Have read that you subtract salt PPM from TDS and the remaining number is your actual TDS. Been around 4500 ppm (14,000 gal.) since opening new salt water pool Salt level 3200 ppm leaving 1300 TDS?Thanks Steve always great info.